A young sanitary inspector in a mid-western city had his suspicions of a new milk company. He never seemed to be able to catch the wagon as it drove into town, so one day he jumped on his bicycle and rode out to the farm to get a sample. The man was not there, and his wife said that they had no milk left on the place that morning. The inspector’s suspicions were more than ever aroused, and he made a search of ice boxes and cooling places, only to find no milk. It is a very easy thing for milk to disappear when an inspector turns in at the gate. Nothing daunted, therefore, he pulled down a pail from its peg, marched out to the pasture, cornered a cow, milked her, and, sample in hand, rode back to the city triumphant.
The health commissioner is wonderfully proud of this spirit of not-to-be-balkedness in his inspector. He has the makings in him of a master of public health. But the commissioner felt obliged to explain to his assistant with as sober a face as he could muster, that up to date in that part of the commonwealth they had not hitherto arrested a single cow for putting formaldehyde in her milk or for diluting it.
Childhood’s Bill of Rights, printed some time ago in The Survey[[3]], has developed an ever widening influence. One enthusiastic friend sent it during the past Christmas season to some forty foreign lands. V. H. Lockwood, author of the bill, is a busy Indianapolis attorney but he finds time for social service whether called upon to act as judge pro tem of the juvenile court, as the vice-president of the Children’s Aid Association, or on a committee of the State Conference of Charities. His special interest just now is the work of the vice committee of the Indianapolis Church Federation.
Mr. Lockwood, long ago, became interested in the juvenile court. He was frequently consulted by Judge Stubbs, the first juvenile court judge in Indiana, and for several years was one of his substitutes on the bench. Out of this experience grew the Bill of Rights which was jotted down in his notebook years ago. From it grew also the Children’s Aid Association, which Mr. Lockwood helped to organize for the purpose of saving children from being taken into court. He has also co-operated in drafting several of Indiana’s laws for the safeguarding of children, particularly those having to do with the juvenile court, contributory delinquency, the licensing of maternity hospitals and children’s institutions, and child labor.
MRS. V. H. LOCKWOOD
To Mrs. Lockwood, however, is due most of the credit in connection with Indiana’s child labor law. She has for several years been secretary of the State Child Labor Committee and has been active in other welfare work. Two years spent under the direction of the National Child Labor Committee in investigating conditions in Indiana armed her with facts which were used effectively before the two legislatures which considered the child labor bill. The first attempt met with defeat, but the next session passed the present law. Between the two sessions Mrs. Lockwood traveled over the state, working to educate the people through the clubs and schools. She is one of the lecturers of the Indiana Federation of Clubs, and takes a part in many branches of social welfare work in Indianapolis.